Ed Sheeran is the World's N.1 Best-selling Artist of 2017!

Posted on January 9, 2018

Ed Sheeran is the big winner of 2017. His album 'Divide', released in March, sold over 9.636 million equivalent sales globally by the end of the year, more than twice as much as the runner-up, Kendrick Lamar's 'Damn'. Sheeran’s “Divide” was the top-selling album of 2017 in the U.S., logging total equivalent sales of 2.76 million copies, a figure that unites sales and streaming data, according to final year-end music consumption data compiled by Nielsen Music. It was one of just two albums, with Taylor Swift’s “Reputation,” to sell more than 1 million physical units at a time when most consumers are streaming their favorite songs and albums rather than purchasing digital downloads or physical CDs or other formats. 'Divide' was the UK's highest selling album of the year with over 2,128,000 copies sold by the end of 2017 after topping the Official UK Albums Chart for a total of 20 non-consecutive weeks, the longest since Adele's '21' in 2011 and 2012. '÷' was Australia's highest selling album of 2017 with over 420,000 copies sold throughout the year after 22 non-consecutive weeks atop the ARIA Album chart! It sold 387,000 units in France (physical and downloads) and was the 2nd best-selling Album on the year-end album sales chart.

Sheeran's blockbuster hit single "Shape of You" was the world's best-selling Single of 2017. On 21 September 2017 it became the most streamed song of all time on Spotify, with over 1.32 billion streams. It was also the best-selling song in the US with 2.3 million copies sold, the only song to sell over 2 million and it was the most streamed song in the US with 799.7 million combined audio and video streams. The smash hit spent 12 weeks at N°1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and 59 weeks total on that chart, the longest run for a single in the history of the chart.

"Shape Of You' was also the UK's highest selling and most streamed track of 2017 with 787,000 copies sold and 248 million streams throughout the year after 14 non consecutive weeks atop the UK Official chart. The Song was also the best-selling in Canada after spending 16 consecutive weeks on the Canadian Hot 100! In Australia, "Shape of You" was the highest selling song of 2017 with 630,000 copies sold by the end of the year. It topped the ARIA chart for 15 weeks, breaking a record set 22 years ago by Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise".